Vaughan Williams - Symphony 5 [Norrington-London Philharmonic Orchestra]
This disc is from the new-ish Virtuoso series, from the back catalogue of Decca and DG, on Amazon you can get some of these discs for a snip, some of them are very desirable indeed, this is one of the best, on the cover it gives the impression that this Fifth is by Marriner, the rest of the pieces are, but this one's from Norrington, this is only the second time i've played it, and i like it a lot already.
Roger Norrington is English, amazingly he's now 81, he recorded this in 1998, now the front cover is a marvellous shot, of a countryside swamped in mist, with layers of background trees, sunlight streaming through, all very grey / brown, it's such a nice shot, and goes well with the music on the disc.
The third movement Romanza is the spiritual centre of the work, and it's certainly my favourite movement, one of Vaughan Williams greatest creations, but on this listen i actually liked the first movement the best, Vaughan Williams calls it 'Preludio', it's a sweet yet sad refrain, high violins set the mood, against a backdrop of rumbling basses [0:00-3:27], no wonder it's called a 'preludio', it sounds like a perpetual prelude, forever about to move into into the main movement at any moment, only when the music changes tack / key [3:27+] do you realise that this is it!, those sweet high violins stay as the main stars throughout, roughly at the six minute mark there's a central section where the woodwind develop some strong / important playing, and with busy and furious strings [6:55+], the whole thing comes to a forte peak, before dying away and the opening starts again, there's this tremendously passionate section, where Vaughan Williams brings all the themes together in a powerful strong statement [8:38-9:51], the music dies away with the voices from the horns, it's a tremendous movement that can be overshadowed by the music to come, as i said it's only the second time i've listened to Norrington's reading, so it will take some more time to really reach an opinion.
Here's Andrew Manze conducting this Symphony on YouTube.
Roger Norrington is English, amazingly he's now 81, he recorded this in 1998, now the front cover is a marvellous shot, of a countryside swamped in mist, with layers of background trees, sunlight streaming through, all very grey / brown, it's such a nice shot, and goes well with the music on the disc.
The third movement Romanza is the spiritual centre of the work, and it's certainly my favourite movement, one of Vaughan Williams greatest creations, but on this listen i actually liked the first movement the best, Vaughan Williams calls it 'Preludio', it's a sweet yet sad refrain, high violins set the mood, against a backdrop of rumbling basses [0:00-3:27], no wonder it's called a 'preludio', it sounds like a perpetual prelude, forever about to move into into the main movement at any moment, only when the music changes tack / key [3:27+] do you realise that this is it!, those sweet high violins stay as the main stars throughout, roughly at the six minute mark there's a central section where the woodwind develop some strong / important playing, and with busy and furious strings [6:55+], the whole thing comes to a forte peak, before dying away and the opening starts again, there's this tremendously passionate section, where Vaughan Williams brings all the themes together in a powerful strong statement [8:38-9:51], the music dies away with the voices from the horns, it's a tremendous movement that can be overshadowed by the music to come, as i said it's only the second time i've listened to Norrington's reading, so it will take some more time to really reach an opinion.
Here's Andrew Manze conducting this Symphony on YouTube.
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